Brown Qualifies Two for NCAA Championships

Mar 14, 2010

Providence, R.I. – Brown fencing qualified a pair of
student-athletes for the NCAA Championships on Sunday, as senior
Adam Pantel and freshman Caitlin Taylor made the cut in the foil
and saber respectively at the Regional competition held at
Brown. The Bears will have the opportunity to add two more
qualifiers this week, as foilist Jonathan Yu and saber fencer Randy
Alevi each competed well enough to be at-large candidates.
Final decisions on at-large bids will be made on Tuesday.

“I am very happy for our pair of fencers who qualified to
move on to the next level,” said head coach Atilio
Tass. “Caitlin performed especially well to make
NCAA’s as a freshman, and Adam has done a terrific job to
qualify for the third consecutive year.”

Pantel notched the highest finish of the day for Brown,
finishing the day in seventh overall, with the top eight earning
spots at Nationals. Both Pantel and Yu performed well in the
early going, winning all of their bouts in the first round to take
the third and fourth spots in the first rankings. Yu faced a
tough draw in the second round though, going .500 in the pool and
dropping to 11th in the second rankings, while Pantel stayed even
at fourth.

Though the two Bears again had stiff competition in the third
pool, Pantel was able to hold on for seventh overall, and qualify
for NCAA’s, while Yu hung in at 11th to be eligible for an
at-large spot.

In the women’s saber, both Taylor and Alevi were seeded
highly, advancing them to the second pool automatically. Once
there, both fencers competed well enough to move on to the third
round relatively easily, going a combined 9-3 in the early
going. In the third pool, Alevi was particularly impressive,
going 4-2 to finish seventh heading into the final round.
Taylor was just behind though; though her record was 3-3, she was
among the leaders in touches scored, putting her in eighth.

In the fourth pool, both Taylor and Alevi struggled, as each
went 1-5 against the toughest competition in the region.
However, Taylor’s earlier work was enough to give her an
overall finish of ninth on the day, qualifying her along with
Pantel. Alevi came in at 12th overall, earning the last spot
to be eligible for an at-large.

Brown will be back in action on beginning on March 25, when the
Bears travel to Boston to compete in the four-day NCAA Tournament.

For all of the day’s results and a complete list of NCAA
Qualifiers, Brown fans can check out all of the action at: Complete Results